Agenda item

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

Elaine showcased some of the boards work- including Proud of Bucks, Long Crendon Board Games Club, Community Orchards and forthcoming events.

Support is available for Community Fridges- contact Helping Hand if there is a need in your area. Can be linked into existing schemes, such as allotments.

All to share details of local events if you would like the Community Board to support and promote on their Facebook page. Elaine shared local project ideas that could be replicated in other areas.

Elaine highlighted how Community Board funding had been allocated and shared the current priorities.:

• Health & Wellbeing including Cost of Living
• Environment
• Road Safety including Active Travel

Ashley highlighted digital recycling as a gap that could be filled- if anyone is interested in getting involved.

Action: Elaine/Paul to look into thermal imaging cameras for the board to be available to parishes.

It was noted that footpaths and cycle paths were not mandatory in new developments. Paul advised that developers should incorporate sustainability but not all projects were viable for various reasons.

Cllr Greg Smith advised that the Planning committee was committed to achieving a particular standard and we should ensure a higher standard is set which ticks all the boxes including health and wellbeing, Climate Change etc.

He also felt CB funding did not reflect the population shift and that 2/3^rd of the population lives in either Haddenham or Berryfields and that the CB budget spent did not reflect the growth in those areas. He felt a large proportion of funding addressed Children and Families which was great but felt that Parishes had a larger older population which also needed support.

Paul advised that we could not confirm the population numbers exactly as that split but invited Greg to join him to explore support for older people.

Action: Paul, Elaine and Greg to further explore need for support for older people in the form of a task and finish group.

Regina Ichim from Berryfields asked how we raised awareness about the CB?

Elaine highlighted that the board works closely with Berryfields PC and had put on a health and wellbeing event in the community centre last year but had had trouble getting residents to attend even though it was well promoted.

Ashley highlighted that the population in Berryfields is a younger generation. A lot of projects have been funded in the past, but these are now sustainable, so they do not require additional funding.

Cllr Greg Smith – asked about the collection of data and evidence to identify issues and find out what people needed. Elaine advised that available data is not sufficiently granular enough to identify pockets of need in our diverse communities and the role of CB members is to raise any identified local need.

The state of footpaths was raised, and Cllr Nic Brown advised that this needed to be fed back to Councillors as is outside the scope of the Community Board.

Sue Pusey from Westcott asked about intergenerational projects.

Paul gave examples of recent projects such as the Waddesdon Pool Club opening up the club to teenagers.  Waddesdon Horticultural society had also started offering children’s workshops.